For you I'd bleed myself dry
by LadyPalma
Summary: Regina has leukemia and she tells Hook, hoping that he will help her hiding the disease from everyone... But he will do more than just that. It will be complete in three chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**For you I'd bleed myself dry**

**1.**

**You're not alone, together we stand,****  
****I'll be by your side you know I'll take your hand****  
****When it gets cold, and it feels like the end****  
****There's no place to go you know I won't give in…**

**[Keep holding on – Avril Lavigne]**

* * *

They were sitting aboard of his ship, just staring at the beautiful and yet melancholic sunset in front of them. Both were silent, they just let her unexpected words sank into the ocean they were floating on. He didn't completely understand the meaning of the news she had told him, but it had sounded anyway out of tune.

"So… What does this _leukemia_ mean?" the captain finally asked frowning "Is it something like… How do you call it? _Flu_?"

The seriousness of his tone, as he tried to recall the name of the viral disease he had heard about in Storybrooke, made her instinctively smile, though there was nothing to smile about, actually. Because leukemia was nothing like flu, it wasn't something that you can nurse with antibiotics continuing the everyday life; instead, since the first moment Dr Whale let her know the results of her analysis, Regina understood that that illness was going to revolutionize everything, even likely leading her to death.

It was one of the most hard battle she had ever faced and she wasn't ready at all to fight, not this time.

She had already lost everything, and yet she wasn't ready to let go like that.

She shook her head and was somehow taken back to the moment she was living; Hook in front of her was waiting for an answer and that sight made her smile again, though it was a smile full of irony and sadness.

"It's quite more than that… It can be defined as a blood cancer and I don't know if I have discovered it in time…"

He couldn't help but widen his eyes, staring at her with no emotion, except for an evident astonishment. He didn't know much of cancer, but he knew that it was very bad and that the therapy they used was long and painful.

"When… When will you be fine again?" he attempted to ask, trying to control the inevitable hesitation in his voice.

"Probably I won't"

Her calm resignation, added to the bitter confidence in her smile, almost scared him, probably more than what he had just found out. He wanted to say something, anything, but still he remained in silence, trying to give a sense to his thoughts; she was always so strong, powerful and now that side of her was revealing itself to be just an appearance: she was weak, fragile, _human_.

"Look" she started after a while, calling his attention "I'm telling you that because I need someone to help me covering my conditions when it will become difficult to hide them… I don't want anyone to know about –"

Hook found himself nodding at those words and then, he suddenly realized the whole situation and just raised his hand up, interrupting her.

"You can stay here on my ship" he simply offered.

"Hook, I didn't mean for you to do something like that" she immediately replied, shaking her head.

"Oh but I did, love… Let me help you"

Regina looked at him surprised by the proposal and even more by the look on his face. She considered it for a moment and then slowly accepted it with a slight nod. Could she really trust him? She didn't know, but it was no time to refuse any help given.

"Thank you, then"

The pirate hinted a smile, but quickly his expression turned into a thoughtful one. There still was a question on his mind, something that fell outside of the awful news, but referred to the reasons behind it.

"Why have you told me that, anyway?"

"I already said why" she answered, shrugging "I needed someone that could help hiding it"

"Yeah, but why me, of all people? Why _me_?"

That doubt was just, they were nothing more than simple acquaintances, sometimes allies, sometimes enemies. Despite the long conversations they had become used to have together or the secrets they have little by little discovered about each other, they weren't friends.

"I didn't want anyone to get worry about it"

It was the simple revelation of what she was thinking; she hadn't wanted to scare Henry, Tinkerbell or the Charmings indeed. And yet, as soon as that sentence escaped her mouth and she faced his deep blue eyes, filled with an unknown and unexpected sorrow, she realized that for that exact reason, she had probably made the wrongest choice.

* * *

"What the hell are you doing here?"

The words came out sharper than she meant, but after all they reflected her thoughts. She had spent almost two hours getting physically and most of all psychologically ready for the start of the therapy, not considering at all the sleepless night alone in the huge empty mansion. And then, just when she was about to go, a loud knock on the door introduced the pirate into the picture of that day.

"I was just passing by…" he answered, tried to sound convincing.

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms to the chest, starting to get a bit annoyed.

"That's fine… " he said again, surrounding to the evidence of the failure of his attempt "I wanted to know if you needed something… Maybe I could come with you to the hospital"

Now she raised both her eyebrows, clearly taken by surprise, but the irritation was completely disappeared from her face.

"It isn't necessary, captain"

"Okay"

"Anyway, what made you think that I wanted the company of a filthy pirate?" she joked, moving her eyes to the inside of the house.

Regina took her purse and controlled to have taken everything, and then locked the door, but in the meanwhile she didn't receive the usual reply to the provocation she had made to him. Instead, another simple "okay" was all that she get and, slightly confused, she let that okay echo in her mind for a moment, looking up to him. It was then that she noticed that his eyes hadn't actually met hers yet and that what she had in front of her wasn't the impudent, playful Hook she was used to. Realization suddenly hit her and, guessing the reason behind that behavior, a heavy bitterness filled her heart.

"Hey, don't do this" she said, approaching him a bit more and forcing him to look at her "Don't treat me any different… I would have asked help to Snow White, if I had wanted pity… Damn it, we are supposed to be the villains!"

Killian stared at her for a while, without saying a word. He could have told her that it wasn't pity, he wanted to tell her that being villains didn't mean nothing at all when it came to those things and that she had any right to show vulnerability, if she wanted to. But the problem was exactly that she didn't want to, and if what she really needed was him to pretend to ignore everything, then he would have tried to do that.

"It's a pity that you don't want me there, love…" he finally managed to say, forcing a smile " I had come with something to drink"

Regina smiled too. That was way better.

"You know I don't do rum"

He nodded at that protest and immediately took his famous flask from his jacket, winking at her.

"That's why I've filled it with _wine_"

* * *

**Hi to everyone! This is a story in three chapters, written for a request I received... Leslie I hope you like it:)**

**I don't know how I handled this situation, because it's been a while since I wrote something this sad... So let me know what you think about this beginning!**

**I hope to update soon:)**


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

**Will you still love me when I'm no longer young and beautiful?****  
****Will you still love me when I got nothing but my ache and sorrow?****  
****I know you will, I know you will****, ****I know that you will****  
****Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?**

**[Young and beautiful – Lana del Rey]****  
**

* * *

A few days had been enough to carry away all her confidence and she had helplessly fallen into a state of blue funk. Maybe she had underestimated the situation or more likely, overestimated herself, but now the naked truth about her situation finally appeared to her eyes. Chemotherapy was nothing compared to any pain she had experienced in her life, not even the torture that Owen had inflicted her had been that terrible.

Because it had been sudden and quick, while that disease was going to destroy her in a different way.

_Slowly. Completely._

She had spent all day half-lying in bed, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She could see the same herself there, the same Regina, only more tired than the usual. But how long would it have remained that way? Soon she would have lost that appearance, starting with her beautiful dark hair. It was something potentially destructive for someone who always based her strength upon beauty and magic was totally useless for that.

A knock o the door interrupted her deadly thoughts and soon after the pirate's figure appeared on the door.

"Why are you still here?" she asked in a whisper, slightly annoyed, perceiving his presence with the corner of the eye.

Hook didn't answer and instead took some steps toward the bed, placing a plate on bedside table.

"What is it?" she asked again, turning a bit her head to the unknown food.

"It's spaghetti" he explained "I took it from Grannys… I don't plan to poison you"

"I'm not hungry"

Her laconic repetitive answer wasn't going to be accepted this time, and so he just sat beside her and took the plate with his hand.

"I don't care if I have to feed you myself, my hot-headed Queen… I can be more stubborn than you"

Regina sighed and then slowly nodded, making him smile triumphantly. She knew that he was right after all, she had to eat before the therapy would have took away all of her appetite.

"I've met Emma, Baelfire and Henry, by the way" the pirate added falsely nonchalant, starting to twirl the pasta around the fork "They asked me about you, Henry was clearly worried…"

He stopped after that information, giving her some time to consider it, and she did. She closed her eyes and tried to hold back the tears that were already threatening to fall, just at the mention of her son's name.

"What have you told him?" the woman finally asked, with a trembling voice.

"What we had planned to tell everybody" he replied with a heavy sigh "That you left town because you needed a break and time to think… He accepted your decision, but he misses you so much and he's waiting for you to return"

A single tear escaped her control at that, but a new strength seemed to take possess of her body. Unexpectedly, she grabbed the fork from the man and took a bite, as if she had remembered a reason to continue that fight.

And that reason was Henry, that reason was love, after all.

"What else did they say?"

Hook couldn't hold a playful smile hearing that question, as the memories of a few hours before reformed into his mind.

"Nothing more… Except for the fact that…"

"What?" she asked, looking up to him, showing a bit of curiosity.

"Of all of this situation, Emma understood that you and I have an affair" he revealed, with a hinted flirtatious tone.

She frowned and remained silent for a moment, not knowing how to react to that absurd theory.

And then she just smiled, sincerely, for the first time in a while.

* * *

It was a Friday morning when what she'd been most fearing became real. It all started some days before with some more hair than the usual trapped into the hairbrush and then that day she woke up into the room the pirate gave her on his ship, only to find the pillow covered with her dark hair. She immediately sit up and stared motionlessly at it for a while, then she gained her courage and turned her eyes to the mirror in the closet. A strong sense of disgust and compassion toward herself took possess of her and she ended up destroying it with an instinct angry twitch, throwing the high heels she wasn't able to wear well anymore at the exact point where her face was reflected.

Maybe it was the noise to call his attention, but just a few seconds later, the pirate was somehow at her side with a worried look, trying to understand the situation.

"What's happened, Regina?" he asked softly, moving his eyes to the fragments of glass on the floor to her apparent blank expression.

Maybe she realized only in that moment his presence and quickly raised her hands in a useless attempt to cover her face.

Too late.

He noticed her hair and guessed immediately the reason of her surprising behavior. He just sighed heavily, feeling a new sorrow came into him, and then instead of doing as she said, slowly took one of her trembling hand in his only one.

They just remained like that for some minutes, in silence, avoiding each others' look.

Finally, Hook stood up and started to search he room, apparently looking for something. The woman didn't ask anything, but followed confusedly his movements.

"Found it!" he exclaimed suddenly, closing a closet and showing her what seemed like a kerchief.

It was a piece of cloth black and white and there was an inevitable skull and crossbones on it. The captain with a bit of difficulty, caused by the lack of a hand, put it on her head and then a small smile crossed his lips seeing her with that new accessory.

"Now you are a true pirate" he joked, making a wink.

She found herself slightly smiling too. It was impossible for her to understand how he of al people was able to lighten her mood so easily, when nothing and nobody could made her feel any better. But that thought made reveal her strange condition of dependence from him and so the weak smile soon turned out into violent uncontrolled sobs.

And so she cried, cried hard, until he wrapped her into his arms, just holding her, trying to be what he hadn't been able to be for anyone in his life. A rock which upon to stand.

But tears were in his eyes as well.

* * *

**Here it is the second chapter! I tried to write more about Regina's suffering and Hook's helping... Thank you for the reviews, I hope you will let me know what you think about this one too!**

**See you soon with the last part!**


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

**Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones****  
****Turn into something beautiful****  
****Do you know? For you I'd bleed myself dry****  
****For you I'd bleed myself dry…**

**[Yellow – Coldplay]**

* * *

Hook was pacing back and forth waiting for the door to be opened. He looked at the clock on the wall and sighed for the umpteenth time: he was nervous of course and also very scared, but all his fear and worry wasn't for himself, despite what he was going to do. Because what he was going to do would probably save her, but what if not even that would have been enough?

"There is no other way, it must work" he repeated to himself, nodding as to confirm the though.

Remembering that it had been Rumpelstiltskin to suggest that idea wasn't of much comfort, but somehow, that sort of conversation between them, had been enlightening to understand the nature of his relationship with Regina and unexpectedly a new feeling of hope and determination invaded him as the memories of the recent meeting with the crocodile flashed in his mind.

_He left her alone for a very short time, just enough to reach the pawnshop. She was sleeping, of course she was, there was nothing else that she did lately. _

_Except for crying. And feeling deadly sick._

_She didn't even complain that much aloud, every lament was possibly silent, but now not for hiding the emotions for him, but simply because she wasn't strong enough to do that anymore. She needed strength for something else, she needed it to fight… But fight what? Evidently, chemotherapy wasn't enough._

_And that was exactly the reason why Killian Jones was there, asking for help to his eternal enemy. He was ready to make a pact with the Devil, no matter what the price._

"_It's quite… interesting" the imp murmured thoughtfully, though the subtle irony shining in his eyes made instantly Hook angrier than he already was._

"_That's nothing funny about it!" he hissed, raising instinctively his hook "Regina is ill… And now you will do something to help her"_

_A smile crossed the other man's lips hearing that desperate threat… He never expected that the pirate would have fallen love again with such intensity, but he indeed was now, and with the Queen of all the women._

"_You love her, don't you?"_

_The immediate simple answer he received was even more unexpected that the previous realization._

"_Of course I do"_

_The smile turned into a sad one, probably as a reflection of the sadness showed in the blue eyes that were staring at him, and Rumple found himself sighing heavily._

"_I'm sorry for Regina, I really am and… Despite everything, I care for her deeply, I… Somehow I consider her as a daughter" he started honestly, looking down "But there is nothing I can do" _

"_You are lying!" the captain retorted immediately "There must be some magic, some curse, some… something!"_

_The pawnshop owner shook his head, until an idea suddenly came into his mind._

"_Actually, there is something…"_

"_Anything. That's fine if it will save her" Hook interrupted him "Name your price" he added then with a challenging look._

"_Oh, there's no price… I won't do anything" _

"_What… What does that mean?" the pirate asked frowning in confusion._

_Rumpelstiltskin just smirked and pointed his finger to him._

"_Well, there's something __you __will do"_

And so now he was there, dealing with his mission of salvation on his own. He just hoped that it would have resulted in a happy ending, otherwise the imp would have been the one to blame and nothing would have stopped him from revenge then. He had lost a true love once because of that man, and now, after what he suffered after Emma's rejection, he was feeling love again, and probably that love was even more stronger than the previous ones.

"Mr Jones" the voice of a nurse called him "Doctor Whale is waiting for you"

Killian nodded and finally entered the door.

Her illness wasn't something to be fixed with a true love kiss or by a heroic act.

_But he would have saved her anyway._

* * *

Regina felt her head dizzy and her eyes tired, she tried to blink for a few times, until she could finally fully open them with a clear sight of what was around her. A hospital room, there was no doubt about it. If she hadn't been so disoriented, she probably would have smiled of relief; when she closed her eyes the last time, she had been sure to die during the surgery.

Instead a friendly face and a caring smile immediately contradicted her again. The last person he saw, Tinkerbell, was now looking at her with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, good morning" she said taking her hand in hers "Everyone was so scared for you"

Regina used the little strength she had to shake her head, a bit annoyed and at the same time confused by that statement. Killian had told Tinkerbell just a few days before the operation, but she didn't know that the others became aware of that too, nor she didn't want.

"I'm here" she finally attempted to say, hinting a smile anyway. Then almost suddenly, her expression turned into a thoughtful one and a name flashed in her mind "Killian… Where is Killian, Tink?"

The fairy remained silent for a moment and unwarily looked down, as if she was avoiding the answer. The brunette, already becoming suspicious and most of all worried, was about to ask again, when the door suddenly opened and David's voice called their attention.

"Is she fine?" he asked and then smiled to Regina when the blonde moved aside, making appear a perfectly awake Regina.

But she wasn't paying attention to his at all, instead she was just staring astonished at the person on the wheelchair he was carrying.

"I wasn't able to stop him" the Prince said again, to Tinkerbell, who just nodded understandingly in reply.

Hook and Regina looked at each other for a while, without speaking and without moving, until she finally let her thoughts speak.

"What happened to you?" she asked, trying to sit.

He approached her bed, with David's help and then, while the other two people left silently the room, he raised his good hand to slowly caress her cheek.

"Nothing, love. My legs are perfectly fine… It would have been quite funny to see me without les and without a hand though…"

The attempt of joke, of curse wasn't enough and the need of an answer was still in her eyes.

"I'm fine… It's just that I still have to recover from the surgery" he explained, a bit unsure of what her reaction would have been.

In fact, after a moment of puzzlement, she was quick to connect the dots and she couldn't help but let hot tears fall when she finally understood the reason behind the strange behavior he had had lately. He was the one to donate her the core.

"You did it, you found a way to save me" she whispered, as a joyful laugh joined that cry.

The road was still long, but this time there was actually a hope to make it and there was the willing to try harder.

He just nodded and then slowly, bowed his head to her, making their lips meet for the first time. And it was a kiss so full of love, happiness… life.

_Amor vincit omnia, even death._

* * *

**This is finally the end! Hook donated a part of the core to Regina and so he kinda saved her (for now). I know this sounds a bit unrealistic, but it's fanficiton, isn't it? And I wanted happy ending:) Hope you liked it!**

**I'll come back soon with other stories, mostly HQ;)**


End file.
